Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2006
Analyses are made of the mutual interactions between shock structure and the sidewall laminar boundary layer and their effects on the quasi-steady flat-plate laminar boundary layer in ionizing-argon shock-tube flows. The mutual interactions are studied using effective quasi-one-dimensional equations derived from an area-averaged-flow concept in a finite-area shock tube. The effects of mass, momentum and energy nonuniformities and the wall dissipations in the ionization and relaxation regions on the argon shock structure are discussed. The new results obtained for shock structure, shock-tube laminar side-wall and quasi-steady flat-plate boundary-layer flows are compared with dual-wavelength interferometric data obtained from the UTIAS 10 × 18 cm Hypervelocity Shock Tube. It is shown that the difference between the results obtained from the present method and those obtained by Enomoto based on Mirels’ perfect-gas boundary-layer solutions are significant for lower shock Mach numbers (Ms ∼ 13) where the relaxation lengths are large (∼ 10cm). In general, the present results agree better with our experimental data than our previous results for uncoupled ionizing flows.